America’s Cup Challengers Announced.

Back when the ‘new era’ of the America’s Cup was announced, the 30th of March must have seen like as good a deadline as any to close the entries and announce the venues for a new America’s Cup World Series. It’s the end of the financial year for some and it’s the end of the first quarter. The only downside is that if you are going to make announcements the next day, April 1, then your big news is going to have to compete with the noise of the quaint traditions of April Fools Day.

And just as Twitter and other ‘knee-jerk’ communication mechanisms spread un-researched, ignorant stories every other day, on April Fools Day 2011, it’s even worse. So amongst the articles trying to be clever and tricky, the America’s Cup Event Authority has announced that 15 teams have ‘entered’ for the next edition. In the same release – they have confirmed venues and dates for America’s Cup World Series Events in 2011.

$880 Million of Team Funding Required

If all the entrants announced today make it to the point of building and racing a 72 ft America’s Cup boat, then the amount of money that will have been raised, mostly through private wealth rather than sponsorship, will be around $880 Million. Our calculations could be way off base, but if you assume 3 teams with budgets of 100 million, 10 with budgets of 50 million and 3 with budgets of 40 million, then a lot of cash has to be found in a pretty short lead-time.

As well as the Defender, Oracle Racing, and the Challenger of Record, Mascalzone Latino – America’s Cup organisers claim that 13 other teams got their entries in by the 30th of March deadline. Of these, 12 have been ‘validated’ and two others are still to be assessed against the qualifying requirements. However, five of these teams have not been ‘disclosed’ and so the publicly presented list has not changed since the passing of the deadline.

“Fifteen teams promises an exciting America’s Cup World Series, Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series and ultimately 34th America’s Cup Final. The new wing-sailed, multi-hulled yachts will be fast and physically demanding, keeping the racing dynamic and interesting until the finish. We are looking forward to seeing these teams on the AC World Series circuit later this year. It is time to go racing.”